


Living in the Tear Between Two Spaces

by alphera



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Coping with canon trauma, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 04:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5898517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphera/pseuds/alphera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Wanda, Tony Stark had always been the biggest villain in the story. Peter, however, was his biggest fan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living in the Tear Between Two Spaces

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a bb!Peter fic somewhere in the [Billionaire Baby](http://archiveofourown.org/series/23931) series, but it turned into a sad!Wanda fic with MCU Peter instead… oops.
> 
> My thanks for the wonderful [rougewinter](http://archiveofourown.org/users/rougewinter/pseuds/rougewinter) for beta, and [trixiedenise](http://trixiedenise.tumblr.com/) for title. (Sorry am so dependent guyssss)

The first time Wanda visits New York City after Ultron, she comes across a quaint little Serbian hole-in-the-wall filled to the brim with students and young families. The particular mix of smells of cheese and meat and butter call to her, and she’s inside looking for a table before she even realizes it. 

Despite it being lunchtime on a Saturday, she finds a free table – left alone only because it has just a single seat remaining, and no one in the establishment is dining alone. She sits, content to bask in the smells so reminiscent of _home_ , when a teenager bumps into her table and snaps her out of her daydreams. 

“Sorry,” the boy says, embarrassed. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

Wanda looks up to wave the child off, when she sees the bright red shirt the boy is wearing, printed with the mask of the worst villain she has ever known. 

“He is a fraud, you know,” Wanda tells the boy, gesturing at his shirt.

“He’s not!” the boy says heatedly, turning red when the surrounding patrons startle and look at him in surprise.

“Peter,” the elderly woman in the table beside her admonishes. “That’s not how you should talk to people.”

The boy meekly ducks his head and moves to sit across the woman. “Sorry,” he says, still blushing. “But I don’t agree with you. Iron Man is a great hero,” he mumbles. 

Wanda frowns, and chooses to ignore the obviously misinformed boy. She spends a few minutes being glanced at suspiciously by the boy, which does not really bother her but apparently bothers the boy’s guardian, as the latter chooses to send the boy ahead of her when the two finish their meal and turns to Wanda to apologize.

“I’m sorry about my nephew,” the woman says, turning to her. “Iron Man is a personal hero, I’m afraid, so he’s a little defensive.”

Wanda nods. “It is alright. He is young. He will learn.”

Wanda pointedly ignores the frown the woman is directing at her.

“I always tell my nephew,” the boy’s aunt says, “that he should always respect what other people believe, because everyone has different experiences and different reasons for their beliefs. Maybe you need to hear it too.”

Wanda purses her lips and looks away. If everyone respects everyone else’s beliefs, then there would be no right and no wrong. Obviously, the woman is mistaken.

The silence stretches, and before long the woman walks away.

\---

A week later, Wanda wanders the streets of the city, lost, when she comes across a bunch of bullies ganging up on someone in an alley. She scares them off using nothing but showy sparks, and is surprised to see their victim stand up without issue when his aggressors disappear.

Somehow, she is not too surprised to recognize the scruffy teen as the boy she bumped into in the restaurant last week. It seems the boy recognizes her too, as he purses his lips when he sees her.

His aunt seems to have taught him better manners since the last time, as he takes a deep breath, looks her straight in the eye, and says, “Thanks.”

He looks suspiciously damage-free and not even a little winded – essentially like he didn’t need her help after all – so Wanda tilts her head a little and says so. She raises an eyebrow when the boy looks away, a pensive frown on his face.

“Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should.”

“And being a hero doesn’t mean being a martyr.”*

The boy shrugs one shoulder. “It’s not being a martyr if I’m not hurt.”

Wanda raises both eyebrows this time. “Such nobility for an Iron Man fan,” she says, then turns and walks away.

\---

Perhaps fate does exist. It would certainly explain why barely half a day after their last encounter, Wanda bumps into the boy again in what seems to be his rush to school. She rolls her eyes, exasperated, and holds her hand out this time for a handshake.

“Wanda Maximoff.” 

The boy blinks in surprise, before grasping her hand in a surprisingly firm handshake. “Peter Parker.”

The name, combined with the charmingly stubborn look on the boy’s face, causes an unexpected wave of sadness in her, and it must show on her face, because Peter’s expression quickly transforms to worry.

“Are you ok?”

“I am fine.”

“Well, you don’t look it.”

“I just remembered something. It is nothing to concern yourself with.”

The boy looks dubiously at her, but concedes readily enough. 

“Well, I hope you feel better about whatever it is anyway. See you around!” he says, before hurrying on his way.

Wanda hopes she feels better too, but worries that she never will.

\---

Peter turns out to be quite smart and surprisingly mature, and somehow, she, Peter and his Aunt May end up meeting every Saturday in the Serbian place where it all started. She finds herself looking forward to these afternoons more and more. Being part of the Avengers gave her a purpose, but there was always an inherent sense of _brokenness_ in the facility that drove her to spend leisurely Saturdays eating and wandering around with a boy who shared her brother’s name, and an aunt who watched them fondly.

Her Saturdays feel warm.

And then one Saturday, Peter wears his Iron Man shirt, and Wanda feels the anger flowing through her, and she has to make a conscious effort to stop red sparks flying from her fingertips. 

“Stop being a fool, Peter. You are better than that.”

Peter frowns, furious. “He saved my life!”

“And he’s taken so much more! Countless more!”

“People change!”

“Do they really?!”

Peter grits his teeth, turns, and leaves. Wanda curses Tony Stark for ruining everything.

People are staring at them, but Wanda doesn’t care. She sits, breathing heavily, and it takes her a while to notice that Aunt May is still sitting with her.

“I am sorry for my outburst.” Wanda says, unable to look at the elder woman in the eye.

“Being angry hurts a lot less than being sad,” Aunt May says, “but we can’t be happy again until we learn to admit that we’re sad.”

\---

Aunt May invites her home after lunch, and points her to Peter’s room.

She knocks, and there is a sullen mutter of “come in” from inside. Carefully, she sticks her head in and sees Peter seated by the window, cheek pressed against the glass.

“I am sorry,” she says, before stepping in. “I should not force you to change what you believe in.”

Peter doesn’t answer, and Wanda is considering leaving when Peter speaks almost too quietly to hear. “Do you really think people can’t change?”

She wants to say yes, to reaffirm what she said earlier in the afternoon, but something in Peter’s voice stops her.

“I don’t know.”

Something seems to uncoil a little in Peter then, and she is horrified to see him rub tears from his eyes.

“I did something awful once, and because of that, my Uncle Ben is gone. I’ve been trying so hard to be better, but I’m so afraid I’ll never be.”

Wanda feels awkward, but she steps closer and brushes Peter’s hair from his face. 

“I do not know if you are better, but I know you are pretty good as you are.”

Peter sniffs, and he gathers himself for a few moments before wiping the last of the moisture clinging to his lashes.

“I know you hate him, and I know you blame him for something, but… when the aliens came and we were trapped underneath a building, and everyone had already left us to die… he was the only one who heard us, and he dug us out even if he had to take a couple of hits, even if he could have died himself. I think he’s trying, and I think he also needs other people to tell him he’s getting better, or that he’s already better than what he was.”

Wanda’s arms shake as she extends them to wrap around Peter’s shoulders. She thinks about how she and Pietro spent years being willingly part of Hydra, thinks about their brief but disastrous partnership with Ultron. She thinks about how, in the end, Pietro chose to sacrifice his life for an Avenger, and how now, she is one herself.

“I’ll tell you a secret. I think I need to hear that too.”

There is still a lot of anger and guilt and blame in her, but maybe Peter and Aunt May are right. Maybe people do change. And maybe one day, she can change enough to forgive Tony Stark, and more importantly, forgive herself.

**Author's Note:**

> * Clarification: Wanda meant this in a she-thinks-Peter-has-a-hero-complex way, not in an I-know-you’re-Spider-Man way.


End file.
